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Airfield day photos from Colerne

19 Apr 2009, 11:09pm
These ought to help motivate those still hard at work building their car.

Yellow Marlin - Ken Robson
Black Marlin -me
VX and Corrado - two of my friends.
Person upside down in their car - me, cursing an electrical gremlin.













20 Apr 2009, 5:35am
Looks like everybody had a good day.

I'm looking forward to getting some more action.

Sod's law the car breaks down on the day you want to push it and not outside your house ticking over while playing!
23 Apr 2009, 5:00pm
A great day ideal test for the winter mods and check that all is well for Donington in May. Shame about Johns electrical gremlins as it robbed him of valuable track time.

I promised not to mention him spinning in front of me when he was on track on the forum so I'm glad I didn't!!

I had a really good dice with a race spec Caterham at the end of the day, it was one of those times when he was quicker down the straights but i was quicker through the corners which gave us an equal lap time lap after lap. Just shows what a well sorted 5EXi is capable of.

Will let you know how we get on at Donington.
27 Apr 2009, 10:43pm
KrazyKen wrote:
Shame about Johns electrical gremlins as it robbed him of valuable track time.


Just to close that comment out, having this evening investigated the problems I had at Colerne, I believe I've established why my problems were so hard to fathum on the day.

On the day, the ECU circuit was frying fuses at first, but then starting working, but inconsistently. Yesterday I checked all of the wiring and I could find no obvious faults, so I started pushing, prodding, tapping components at random. When I tapped the ecu, the fuel pump and ecu cut out briefly. I tried it again, and discovered I could repeat the effect time and time again. I then jiggled the plugs to the ecu, and saw the main board was moving relative to the aluminium case.... which it shouldn't, as the main board is screwed to the case...... in theory.

This evening I unbolted the ecu from the chassis (it's awkwardly mounted under my dashboard), and discovered it rattled! With the cover off, it was clear one of the 4 screws holding the main board to the case had rattled loose, and was rolling around no doubt shorting pins. Whilst the cover was removed, I unplugged the hondata daughterboard from the main board, and discovered a shambolic bodge! Clearly when the daughterboard was fitted to the ECU, it was discovered (by the modifying agent) that one of the connectors (it uses PC style jumper pins) was not making good contact with the main board, so rather than fix the connector, it was paccked out with strands of wire!

So in conclusion, it seems the problems with my car weren't of my making. The blame appears to lie firmly with the 3rd party that undertook the (expensive) modification to my ECU, and didn’t tighten up the mounting screws (although 1 had fallen out, the other 3 weren’t very tight either)!
28 Apr 2009, 8:01pm
Okay, everyone does the odd bodge, but to have one like this on an £800 component, takes the piss!

28 Apr 2009, 9:12pm
yeah thats a bit bad when you pay good money for a mod.

What does the mod do? I've never really looked into Honda ECU's is it an essential mod to put into a 5exi?
28 Apr 2009, 9:25pm
It makes a honda k-series ECU totally reprogramable, and means the ECU can run as a standalone device, with all the OEM qualities.

[url]www.hondata.com[/url] (k-pro) if you fancy a nosey.